Corporate tax evasion is wrong, even if legal - survey

The majority of Irish people believe multinational tax avoidance schemes to be morally wrong, while Ireland’s international reputation has been damaged by its tax policy, the charity Christian Aid has said.

In an era of corporate tax controversy, research conducted on the issue by Christian Aid appears to reflect a negative public perception of companies who avoid meeting their obligations.

A Red C poll, conducted on its behalf, found 70 per cent of respondents believe avoidance schemes are “morally wrong even if they are legal”, while just over one third (36 per cent) trust that companies provide accurate information.

Over three quarters (76 per cent) say greater transparency would be useful to police compliance but the damage appears to have been done in Ireland where less than 30 per cent of people believe Ireland’s “international standing is unaffected by our tax policy”.

Sorely McCaughey, the charity’s head of advocacy, described the findings as “fairly damning” if not surprising.

“While PAYE workers and small and medium enterprises pay top rates of tax, some multinationals get away with paying next to nothing,” he said.

“What galls people is that Irish tax policy has been key to multinationals successfully avoiding the payment of vast sums of tax.”

Christian Aid is an international development organisation registered in Ireland that seeks to combat poverty and inequality.

In a global context, it holds that avoidance schemes, in which “Ireland is a key player”, deprives developing economies of millions of euro that could be invested in health, education and other services.

The survey demonstrates, the charity believes, a public appetite for greater “country by country” reporting of key financial information by companies.

“Regrettably the Irish Government opposes public country by country reporting, but our view is that this poll shows that they are badly out of step with the public on this one,” said Mr McCaughey.